806/Fear Toxins are nobody's friend.

Fear Toxins are nobody's friend.
Date of Scene:	27 March 2020
Location:	Ferris home
Synopsis:	Hal comforts Carol, then it gets out of control...
Cast of Characters:	Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan

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Carol Ferris has posed:
What could have been a very, very lovely evening turns to pieces. The club is emptied out, Carol had been hiding under a table for a while, which is about as embarassing as it could possibly be. On many, many different levels.

Green Lanterns got to Green Lantern, so when Hal turns back up to rescue her from beneath the table the trials and tribulations of the evening are evident in ruined makeup, hair and clothes. But she doesn't say a single word except for a simple, "Home?"

And then that is where they find themselves. Carol's apartment, her keys in her hand as she starts to unlock the door, internalizing everything and keeping her eyes down. It's not very often that she's this subdued, but considering the situation, who could blame her?

Hal Jordan has posed:
Hal isn't quite sure how to make her feel better, really. But...given the circumstances, maybe fixing a good drink might help? A drink started this whole thing, maybe another would help calm her. He can only hope that helps a little.

"Carol...whatever you saw...it wasn't real. I heard something about a toxin. You were basically poisoned."

Carol Ferris has posed:
Drinks are certainly an option. Once inside she flips on the light, illuminating a rather simple apartment. The furniture is nice, there's art on the wall, but it doesn't scream money like might be expected.

There is a bar, though, fully open and all drinks are free.
"Wasn't real?" Carol glances over at him, tossing her keys into a bowl next to the door. "That doesn't make the rest not real, does it?" A hand is waved towards the couch as she drifts towards one of the doors, "I'm going to change, make yourself comfortable."

Hal Jordan has posed:
"...I was poisoned too. It's why I had to run off. I'm sorry I wasn't more help." Not as Hal Jordan, anyway. But he sort of had other things to do once the ring reminded him of who he was and why he was Chosen.

Hal sits down on a couch somewhere...and then waits, for whatever Carol might want to change into after an event like that.

Carol Ferris has posed:
Does the fact he was poisoned too help? Maybe.

It's certainly a more normal Carol that returns, although someone who knows her well might realize she's practicing the fine art of fake it until you make it. She's cleaned up, changed to pj bottoms and a sweater, so comfort is king. "You want a drink?" Without waiting to see if he agrees she moves to pour a few fingers of scotch into two glasses before she holds one out towards him. "It's alright, Hal. Most of us wouldn't be much help in a situation like that. But...are you okay?"

Hal Jordan has posed:
Hal thinks about that. And then he thinks about what he saw when he was toxined...if that's any kind of a real thing he saw, that is not good at all. "...Overall, no. I don't like what I saw."

Because if there really is an entity of all Fear out there, waiting for an opening of some kind...and he saw it because he got poisoned...this is not good at all.

Carol Ferris has posed:
"Yeah." Carol replies before taking a sip from her drink, then she moves to drop herself down onto the couch next to him. One hand reaches up to rub briefly at her forehead.

"What did you see?" Carol glances over towards him, worry and curiosity chasing themselves across her face, then she shakes her head, "Sorry, that's probably not very appropriate of me to ask."

Hal Jordan has posed:
"...Some kind of yellow demon. Not quite sure why I saw that of all things..." But the fact he saw that, of all things, is what really bothers him. There were so many understandable fears people have, and there he is, facing down a fear demon.

"...Ummm. Should I even ask what you saw?"

Carol Ferris has posed:
"Yellow demon?" Well that answer is shocking. And confusing, "A //yellow// demon?" Carol shakes her head a moment before taking another sip from her drink, studying him, "That is a very...interesting thing to have seen. Not quite what I'd have expected your answer to be, but me?"

Her? What did she see. It takes her a moment, her attention shifting down to her glass, "I saw myself alone in a crowded room. Alone forever." Much more basic then yellow fear demons, right?

Hal Jordan has posed:
"...That's why I think I might not be quite alright. If I'm seeing that instead of normal and ordinary things..." Then there must be a reason, right? A reason he's going to have to investigate at some point.

"...But you're not alone." At least, not right now. Hal isn't promising anything, really. But in this particular moment, she's not alone.

Carol Ferris has posed:
"It was just.." What? Fake? An illusion? None of that is a very comforting thing to say, and before the words can pop out of her mouth she realizes it, stopping herself from saying it. Instead she pauses, then reaches a hand over to grab his hand to give it a squeeze, "You're not alone, either. Hal..."

No promises are asked for, not really. Promises are probably bad things, anyways. Instead she lets her hand stay there while she studies his face, other thoughts held back for the moment.

Hal Jordan has posed:
"It was a toxin..." But he's less sure of how fake it was. Was there something out there, waiting for his control to slip? For his Willpower to break, even for a moment? It's a thought, and one he can't shake.

But when she takes his hand, he realizes he isn't alone either. "...Thanks."

Carol Ferris has posed:
The hand lingers, and so does the look, and right there on the tip of her tongue seems to be something that she's either dreading saying, or dying to say. But it doesn't happen, no pearls of wisdom fall from her lips, no further assurances that he's not alone in the world to face whatever yellow demon he's scared of.

Instead, she circles back to earlier in the evening, plucking out some words of his own to repeat them back to him, "I'm surprised to have seen you there."

Hal Jordan has posed:
Hal shrugged. "It isn't my usual place to go...but for some reason there was a flier on my desc. Wasn't expecting the flier either, so I thought I'd check it out. Funny how it that turns out..." He was needed, all right, though not as Hal Jordan.

"...I can't say I was expecting to see a Tony Stark ad, or have a drink spiked with Fear Toxins...probably not how a night there is supposed to go." ...But nothing ever goes how it's supposed to go, does it?

Carol Ferris has posed:
"How strange that there was a flier on your desk. Maybe one of the other pilots left it?" Because they can totally afford a place like that, right? Wink wink. Nudge nudge? Maybe far too subtle once more.

"I wasn't expecting to see a Tony Stark ad, either. Or have my drink spiked." In fact, saying /that/ outloud causes her to frown, "In fact, I'll be having a word with Mr. Shaw and Ms. Frost about how that was allowed to even happen."

Hal Jordan has posed:
"I've read up...That guy they caught, Dr. Crane? He's apparerntly a psycho that's usually locked up in Arkham Asylum in Gotham. He specializes in fear. But...expensive as that club is, they really should've caught a Gothamite with a negative reputation in their club."

Expensive as that club is...Hal knows he's the best paid pilot in the company...and the only one wealthy enough to afford to go there is..."...I don't think it was another pilot."

Carol Ferris has posed:
"Dr. Crane?" Carol frowns a bit at the information, then she shakes her head, "You're very right, security should have caught something like that long before he ever had a chance to get in. Let alone spike the drinks. Which, that said. How did he spike the drinks?"

So many unanswered questions. But when he mentions that he doesn't think it was a pilot that left the flier she lofts a dark brow, "No?"

Hal Jordan has posed:
"I don't know. A man like that having access to alcohol at all is so many breaches of security I can't begin to name them all. They definitely dropped the ball keeping a guy like that out." Rather epic ball drop, come to think of it.

"Well...if I'm the best paid pilot, and I can't usually afford to go there...no, I don't think it was another pilot." To that end, he leans back, and smirks at Carol.

Carol Ferris has posed:
Very big ball to drop. Carol nods in full agreement with that assessment, "I'm sure they'll be fielding off complaints, maybe even a lawsuit or two. I'm sure there will also be hell to pay if certain people have anything to say about it."

Carol knocks back the remaining scotch in her glass before she sets it down on a coaster on the coffee table. "Maybe one of the other pilots has another source of income?" It could happen. "Maybe you have an admirer."

Hal Jordan has posed:
Hal is more focused on the admirer part, because that's what he's thinking right now. "...Ya know. We were about to have a dance before Mr. Crane ruined the evening."

Hal spies the sound system...flips it to something appropriate, if slower than what would've been at the club. "C'mere, you." He extends a hand to that end. Towards Carol.

Carol Ferris has posed:
Were they? That was at least the goal, although that goal was horribly destroyed by one Dr. Crane.

The music, the offer of his hand. It is exactly what she was going for earlier, and now there is just some small hesitation. But then she reaches out to take the offered hand, getting to her feet, "So you agree the best part of a club is the dancing?"

Hal Jordan has posed:
"Well. I think we both just learned the hard way that it totally beats drinking."

Hal pulls Carol a little closer for the dancing part of this. The radio is helpful, playing whatever songs happen to be on that radio station. So yeah...this is kinda nice. Probably violates some regulations or something with the whole 'she's his boss' part of this...but he doesn't care right now.

Carol Ferris has posed:
"I enjoy drinking, though. In moderation." Because not drinking in moderation sounds like it might just be a very bad thing for someone to admit to. "But the dancing is nice, too."

All those rules that both of them should be listening to, or remembering, just right out the window tonight. Carol doesn't try and keep a respectable distance between them, or bring it to a quick end. The song is a whole lot slower then what would have been on at the club, which is actually a very big bonus at the moment because it allows her to step in until there is no light visible between them any more. "I was glad to see you tonight."

Hal Jordan has posed:
"We all do. But I think I'm kinda sold on not drinking for a while." At least, he doesn't plan on drinking anything else tonight, and maybe not for the next entire week. Being poisoned isn't much fun.

And with her pressed up close...geez, he hasn't danced that close with someone since his Prom ages and ages ago. This is nice. Getting to do something as a grown man, with a grown woman..."Don't know why people stop doing this when they get older. It's nice."

Carol Ferris has posed:
"Dancing?" Carol wonders, the comment causing some of the sour mood from earlier to wash away with a quiet laugh, "I don't think that people stop dancing with each other just because they get older. Maybe you've just not found the right person to dance with."

Like her. She's quiet for a moment, her eyes focusing on a spot over his shoulder as she weighs some options. She's had a few drinks, but nothing excessive, but it's been a very, very rough night. And there is still that lingering fear of ending up all alone in the world hanging around. It's that nagging thought that tips her hand, and she makes a choice, a hand moving oh so slowly to the back of his neck. It's like a high schooler doing a yawn and stretch in a movie. Only way better.

Hal Jordan has posed:
"...Maybe not." Then again, the last time he was in something like a club, it was on an alien planet where the native species had 5 eyes and 3 arms, so maybe he just hasn't been in the right environment. Still, the dancing, the feel of a warm human body against his own...that was really nice.

The hand on the back of his neck, however, tells him what this lovely woman in front of him probably wants. Well. She said she feared being alone. Maybe he can make that fear go away if he just lets this happen. Overcoming great fear may be part of his job, but it's not part of hers. Without adding any more words to it, he decides to lean down that little bit and kiss her.

Carol Ferris has posed:
It's true. She did say that. And it's also true, overcoming great fear isn't part of her job description. Other things are, running a company, making sure that love doesn't lose. Those things are, but not the fear business. Good thing he is usually good at his job, otherwise things might be a lot worse.

When he leans down to kiss her she leans into it, a small amount of lingering tension easing out of her as she relaxes into the kiss. Nothing fancy, nothing hurried. Just a slow, exploring kiss.

Hal Jordan has posed:
Equally, love isn't part of Hal's job. But...being fearless is, and that's what leads him to deepen the kiss. This is the same guy who likes to push airplanes to things they haven't done before, even messing with their specs a little. So perhaps he's testing a kiss like it's an airplane, seeing what she likes, then doing more of that.

His hands stroke gently up and down her back, as if he hasn't quite decided where to put them.

Carol Ferris has posed:
Admittedly there is a lot of territory for his hands to be placed in, hard decision to make. Do you go high? Do you go low? Either way, the movement of his hands over her back is soothing enough for the moment that she doesn't worry about where his hands might land in the end.

Pushing those limits, testing the waters, and then doing more of things she seems to like is a one way ticket to kicking things up a notch. Usually. And while she seems to just enjoy the kiss with no worries for a good while, she does break it. Sort of. Fractions of inches is all she takes as space between her mouth and his when she does break it, just so that she can make it very clear her stance on things before she goes back in for more kissing. And what is that stance? "We shouldn't be doing this."

Hal Jordan has posed:
Those limits are left far behind now...and things continue to intensify. Things careen out of control, in a way that corporate policy wouldn't approve of at all...consequences are a thing to deal with later...